Guardian Deity
by Midorima Kazunari
Summary: Nishinoya applies the lessons he's learned in volleyball to everything in his life, even his English classwork.


A/N: (This story was written as part of the RLt's Green Room's Special Scorp Challenge, The Comfort Zone Challenge and incorporates Challenge #4, The Moon Children Philosophy Challenge).

* * *

Everyone's favorite Libero, Yū Nishinoya, sat at his desk in English class looking at the worksheet, but thinking about their final game of the Inter-High games and the last ball as it fell.

As he'd dove for the ball, he'd known it was going to be just out of reach… Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the ball about to hit the floor...

He re-read the directions for perhaps the fourth time: _Use each word in two sentences, demonstrating your understanding of the vocabulary and demonstrating your proficiency with modifying endings to suit the context. Make sure to underline the word in each sentence._ It wasn't a difficult assignment — even for him, who had very little between his ears that wasn't dedicated to volleyball — but for some reason he was distracted today. His stomach warbled oddly and he checked his watch. He had almost twenty minutes before lunch, meaning in three hours, he'd be on the court, doing what he'd been born to do. He re-read the instructions one more time, than slapped his cheeks with his hands.

"Ow, that hurt. Why does Hinata do that all the time?" he said, looking across the room and grinning at Tanaka, who only shook his head sadly and rolled his eyes.

"What a weirdo," the girl seated next to him whispered to the girls in front of him.

"I'm so sorry you have to sit next to that freak," her friend replied. "We should ask Sensei to move him. He's too distracting."

"Nishinoya-kun, do you need assistance with your work?" the teacher asked, coming over to look at his blank paper. She sighs, eyeing the clock.

"No, Ma'am; I've got this," he smiled as the red palm prints faded from his cheeks.

"Alright, but you've got to use your time wisely now, you only have fifteen minutes left, then I'm taking this up for a grade."

"Don't worry, I'll make the save. That's what a good Libero does." Or at least that's what he always tried to do, even though sometimes, like the game against Aoba Jōsai, things hadn't turned out the way they'd wanted.

"And he's the best Libero," Tanaka proclaimed in a loud whisper from the other side of the room, chuckling.

"Don't get your friend in anymore trouble, Tanaka-kun. Get back to your own work and mind your own business."

"But he's my wing, it's his job to back up the other players," Nishinoya replied, confused.

"This time he's just a fellow student. Live up to your t-shirt slogan, be an 'army of one' and do your own work for a change," the teacher said, exhaling loudly.

He hunched over his paper and licked the tip of his pencil before putting it to the paper. Unanimous was the first word.

 _The vote was_ _unanimous_ _; we all wanted Sawamura to be the Captain of the Karasuno Men's Volleyball team this year._

 _It's hard to get the whole team to agree on anything_ _unanimously_ _, but we all agree losing Inter-High sucked._

There it was again, he could see his outstretched arm reaching for the ball that was about to hit the ground in fair territory. His chest still hurt – not from where he'd hit the floor in his "Rolling Thunder" dive, but from the ache of heartbreak. The others couldn't blame him for not reaching that last ball; after all, it was a collision of small errors from an exhausted team, as they fell, one after another. It replayed in his mind whenever his thoughts strayed away from the task in front of him. His hand tightened around the pencil and he looked at the next word: eloquent.

 _When Coach Ukai gave us a pep talk after losing to Aoba_ Jōsai _, he used eloquent words to stir us up and inspire us to do better in the future._

 _When Tanaka and I have to talk around Shimizu we cannot speak eloquently; we often bumble our words or blurt out inappropriate things. _

Just writing her name gave him goosebumps. The new girl, Yachi, was cute and all, but there was something so elegant about Shimizu, so mysterious and he'd get to see her this afternoon too. He sighed and looked at the clock. He had three minutes left and two words to go: authorize and harmonious.

 _Takeda-sensei_ _authorized __extra practice against the Tokyo teams and allowed us to travel on the bus to get there._

 _The principal gave his_ _authorization __for the team to use the courts on weekends, as long as our grades remained high._

He sneezed and looked to the top of the page for the next word: harmonious. Time was slipping away so quickly, he stood, bent his knees, pushed back his chair to give himself room, and leaned down over his work. He didn't notice the girl next to him moving away from him, didn't notice the squeal of the metal desk legs as they slid across the floor because the pounding of his pulse in his ears drowned it all out. He was almost done.

 _When we all work together on the court to fool the other team, we are working harmoniously. _

_When Hinata and Kageyama are fighting, it ruins the harmonious play of the team. _

Those two odd first years with their super freakish Quicks and amazing talent might just take us – the bell chimed and Sensei began collecting papers at the back, from where she'd stood watching Nishinoya in his race against the clock.

"Everyone is dismissed, except for Nishinoya-kun," she announced. He groaned.

"What's wrong, Sensei?" he asked, gathering his papers in his bag.

"Give me a moment to read your sentences," she said, stalling him with an open hand. She took out a red pen and began reading. Her eyes started at the top and traveled downward, before snapping back to the beginning and starting all over again.

"Well, your penmanship is awful," she began.

"I know, I'm sorry."

"But, the sentences show a deep understanding of the words and their use. I'm very surprised. Usually when a student rushes through an assignment like this, the work is horrible."

"We use a lot of English words in volleyball," he admitted. "Like: 'Good receive," he shouted, falling into a ready position, his hands gripped to receive. He looked up and saw just then how his volume and enthusiasm made the teacher flinch. "So, yeah," he said, scratching at the back of his head, and letting his hands fall, "I've got some practice in English."

"Do you use volleyball to understand all your other classes, too?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, all the time. Need to understand geometry? Serving and spiking. Need to understand physics? Momentum and inertia of a ball in flight. Everything I need to know in life is in volleyball."

"You're grades are barely passing and it's not because you're unintelligent and you're certainly not lazy…" she said, trailing off, hoping he'd fill in that last little bit himself.

"I know, it's because I don't turn in my assignments on time," he said, looking at his shoes.

"Or at all. Look," she said, taking off her glasses and rubbing the sore spot on the bridge of her nose. "If you didn't come to practice, would your coach let you play in games?"

"Only if I have a really good excuse."

"It's the same thing here. You can't take the tests if you don't do the class and homework in preparation. You already apply volleyball to your assignments, start thinking of them like games. You've got to do the advance work, or when you're on the court, you'll fail."

"You're right Sensei, I'll try," he replied as Asahi appeared in the open classroom door. He mimed eating at the short Libero, who shook his head. Asahi shrugged and headed toward the vending machine

"I know I'm keeping you from your friends, your lunch, but can I ask... a question? What makes you happy?"

"Volleyball and Garigari-kun ice pops, the soda flavored ones."

"I wonder..." She looked toward the empty door way. "What makes you happy..." He looks at her confused. "Does it make... others happy, too?" she asked.

"Everyone on the team loves volleyball or they wouldn't be there – except maybe Tsukishima, I'm not sure why he plays, but he's really good at it."

"Forget Tsukishima. You stopped playing for a while. Why was that?"

"I couldn't play without Asahi-san. Something I loved made him so sad he couldn't play and without him… I wasn't happy either."

"Okay, good, I understand now. So think of it this way, if your grades drop any more, you won't be allowed to play. I've heard the other boys, they call you the Guardian Deity. You're the one who protects the team and I want you to go on protecting your teammates for as long as you can. I want you to succeed, not just in my class, but in life as well and to do that –"

"I'll always be there for my team!" he roared, punching the air.

"If you aren't allowed to play, how will you do that? Playing with your team makes you happy; playing with you, makes _them_ happy. Don't take away your happiness – or theirs – by failing this class, Nishinoya-kun."

He didn't rush to answer this time, but looked at her, maybe for once seeing her as a human being, not just a teacher.

"You know what, Sensei? You're pretty smart. I'd bet you'd make a pretty good Libero, too."


End file.
